Implementing Varnashrama in todays society SB 5.19.19

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And I was writing down notes and it’s like almost every sentence. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Narayanam Namaskritya. Narayanam Namaskritya. Naram Jaiva Narottamam.
Jaiva Narottamam. Devim Sarasvatim Vyasam. Nashtakarayeshwapritreshwam.
Nityambhagvatasevaya. Bhagavateeruttama Shloke. Bhaktir Bhavati Naishtiki.
Bhavati Naishtiki. Krishnaya Vasudevaya. Devaki Nanda Nayaja.
Nanda Gopakumaraya. Govindayana Mounamaha. Shri Nithyananda Bhagavatam.
Canto 5. Chapter 19. Chapter entitled, The Island of Jambudvi. Verse 19.
Translation in purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swamish Nathagopal. These verses are not easy to recite. They are in a metre that we Kali Yuga brains can’t fathom.
So, the people who take birth in this tract of land are divided according to the qualities of material nature. The modes of goodness, Satvaguna, passion, Prajoguna, and ignorance, Samoguna. Some of them are born as exalted personalities.
Some are ordinary human beings and some are extremely abominable. For in Bharatvarsha, one takes birth exactly according to one’s past karma. If one’s position is ascertained by a bona fide spiritual master and one is properly trained to engage in the service of Lord Vishnu according to the four social divisions Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishna, and Shudra and the four spiritual divisions Brahmachari, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, and Sanyasi one’s life becomes perfect.
Purport. For further information one should refer to Bhagavad Gita 1418 and 1842 45 Sri Ramanujacharya writes in his book Vedanta Sangraha Sri Prabhupada quotes a long Sanskrit prose quoting from Vishnu Puran 389 the great sage Parashara Muni has recommended Varnashramacharvata purushena parahapaman Vishnuraradhyate panthananyato toshakaranam The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Vishnu is worshipped by the proper execution of prescribed duties in the system of Varna and Ashrama There is no other way to satisfy the Lord In the land of Bharatvarsha the institution of Varnashram may be easily adopted At the present moment certain demoniac sections of the population of Bharatvarsha are disregarding the system of Varnashram Dharma Because there is no institution to teach people how to become Brahmana, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras or Brahmacharis, Grihasthas, Vanaprasthas, and Sanyasis These demons want a classless society This is resulting in chaotic conditions In the name of secular government unqualified people are taking the supreme governmental posts No one is being trained to act according to the principles of Varnashram Dharma and thus people are becoming increasingly degraded and are heading in the direction of animal life The real aim of life is liberation but unfortunately the opportunity for liberation is being denied to people in general and therefore their human lives are being spoiled The Krishna Consciousness movement however is being propagated all over the world to re-establish the Varnashram Dharma system and thus save human society from gliding down to hellish life KASMAI SHRI GURAME NAMAHA SHRIJYA PUNYAMI KRISHNA SAAPITAM YENA BHUTALE SUYUMBHA GADAMAYIHU GADATHI SVAPADANTIKAM PANDEKU SHRIGURO SHRIYUTHA VIKARANAM SHRIGURUN VAISHNAVAMSHA SHRI RUPAM SARVAJATAM SAHAGANA RAGHUNATHANVITAM TAM SAJEEVAM SARVAM SARVAM PARIJANA SARITAM KRISHNA CHAYA PANYANEHU SHRI BADHA SHRI BADHA SAGANA LALITA SHRI VISHAKHANVITAM SHAM NAMAHA SHRI BADHA VISHNA VRISHNAYA BHUTALE SHRIMTE PRABHIVENAM SWAMI NINAMINE NAMASTE SARASWATI DEVE GAURAVANI PRACHARINE TIRVISHESHWAR SHUNYAVADI ARSHATNIDESH TARINE NAMO MAHAVADANIAYO VISHNA PREMA PRADAYATE KRISHNAYA KRISHNA CHAITANYO NAMME GAURADVISHE NAMAHA E KRISHNA KARUNA SINDHU DINABANDHO JAGADPATE GOPESHHA GOPITAKANTA PRADHAKANTA NAMOSTU TE PRABHRAKANCHINA GAURAMI PRADHE VRINDA VANESHWARI KRISHNA ANUSUTE DEVI PRANAMAMI HARI PRIYE VANJA KALPATARUNISJU KRIPASINDHU BHYAEVACHA PATIKANAM BHAVANEDYA VAISHNAVEDHYO NAMO NAMAHA JAI SHRI KRISHNA CHAITANYO PRABHU NITYATRINDA SHRI ADVAITADHATARAM SHRIVASADI GAURABHAKTA VINDA HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE HARE KRISHNA Seek the blessings of all the senior devotees that I can speak something about Srimad Bhagavatam Today morning we are discussing from the 5th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam the section from chapters 16 to 25 talks about the sacred universe about how Dharamayan devotion pervades all the aspects of the universe and while describing this sacred vision of the cosmos in this chapter Shri Gurudev Goswami is focussing on the island of Jambudweep and within that the land that we presently live in is Bharat Varsha and here Sri Prabhupada is explaining in the purport that according to the moods people have they are given appropriate engagements in the Varanashram Dharma by which they can make spiritual advancement and ultimately attain liberation from material existence So today I will focus on the theme of Varanashram Dharma Varanashram Dharma enables us to find ourselves materially while we find ourselves spiritually this is going to the centre of the class I will explain this it enables us to find ourselves materially while we find ourselves spiritually what does it mean? find ourselves spiritually means that we are all souls as souls we are parts and parcels of Krishna and we attain supreme happiness in loving and serving him purely and selflessly so that is Dharma at the highest, purest level Dharma means we love and serve Krishna purely and we gain supreme happiness in that this is mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.26 so that Dharma is the supreme Dharma which enables us to love the Supreme Lord without motivation and without interaction that alone will satisfy our heart and soul so this is Dharma at the highest level however, this is not the only meaning of Dharma the word Dharma has multiple meanings you see, at the transcendental level to love and serve Krishna is Dharma but we are right now not transcendental we are somewhere in the three modes conditioned by our past samskaras and our present circumstances so, now say these are the three modes and this is transcendence so at the transcendental level we will naturally be happy in loving and serving Krishna but when we are in the conditioned stage we don’t always experience that same happiness so now, the whole purpose of life is that I am somewhere here then from here to go to here that is the purpose of life to go from within the modes to transcendence now when I am going this way up there are two things that are required one is, when I am living in the material world I should be able to live harmoniously and secondly, I should be able to make spiritual advancement smoothly so these two purposes of harmonious material living and smooth spiritual advancement are served by Varanashram Srila Prabhupada explains that in Varanashram the Varna part is for the body and the Ashram part is for the soul the Varna enables us to take care of our body according to our material nature Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra these are all ultimately material natures of the body that we have and when we live in this world according to our bodily nature we can be productive and satisfied these are two things that happen when we work according to our nature we are productive because if I am doing something according to my nature I can do it well because that is what nature has equipped me to do so a Brahmana can do intellectual work very well if a Brahmana is told to do the Vaishya work of say earning money the Brahmana will be pathetic at that on the other hand if a Vaishya is told to do work of a Brahmana the Vaishya will find that work intellectual torture who will study so much? who will memorise so many things? what is the point of it all? how much money are you going to get by it? so we will be unproductive if we don’t work according to our nature so materially harmonious means we will be productive when we work according to our nature and secondly we will be satisfied at a material level also there is some happiness that comes when we act according to our nature so when we are productive and we are satisfied then our material life is harmonious so when I talk about this say I am somewhere over here now this is ignorance, passion, goodness this is transcendence so now the Varna aspect enables me to live harmoniously at a material level of course material life ultimately is never fully harmonious there is always Trimittapa there is always Janma, Mrityu, Jara, Vyadi but still if we are living disharmonious with our nature we will be far more miserable than what the material world requires us to be there is a certain amount of misery inevitable in this world but that doesn’t mean that we have to necessarily make our lives more miserable so now from where we are so the Dharma according to our nature is material, for example Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra this is essentially material Dharma as Prabhupada quotes here from 1842-45 these four verses describe the activities of Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra this is material Dharma now from the material Dharma while one is practising material life one also has to purify oneself so that one goes to the spiritual level so that is essentially Sadhana Bhakti so Shuddha Bhakti is practised at the transcendental level when we have transcended the modes when we spontaneously love Krishna and we do whatever Krishna wants us to do for his pleasure and for our eternal happiness also so that means the word Dharma has three connotations first is at a transcendental level Dharma means Ahaituki Abhrati Hatha Bhakti unmotivated uninterrupted devotional service at a second material level Dharma refers to Varnashram Dharma acting according to our material prescribed duties and thirdly Dharma also refers to Sadhana Bhakti in the 12th chapter after Krishna describes the qualities of the devotees from 12.13 to 19 in this last verse 12.20 he describes what I am telling you this process of devotional service it is the eternal Dharma and if you practise it faithfully if you practise it faithfully Krishna doesn’t use the word Abhyas he uses the word Upasate to worship this process of devotional service with faith understanding me to be the supreme goal what will happen? even if you just practise Sadhana Bhakti you will be extremely dear to me that means the Dharma that is being referred to over here is Sadhana Bhakti so the word Dharma has these three connotations at a transcendental level Ahaituki Abhrati Hatha Bhakti at a material level Varanashram Dharma and at a transitional level it is the Sadhana Bhakti so now we at our stage cannot practise Ahaituki Abhrati Hatha Bhakti that is our aspiration we want to come to that level so what we practise at our level is Sadhana Bhakti so Krishna gives this downward hierarchy from 12.8 to 12.12 in the Bhagavad Gita 12.8 he talks about Shuddha Bhakti then 12.9 onwards he talks about various levels of Sadhana Bhakti so that means right now when we are practising spiritual life among these three connotations three meanings of the word Dharma we aspire for the transcendental level of Dharma at the same time we practise these two levels Varanashram Dharma that is our material duty and then there is Sadhana Bhakti which is transcendental Dharma which takes us from the material level to the spiritual level so Varanashram Dharma in and of itself is not necessarily transcendental if you look at the qualities which will be described in the Bhagavad Gita 18.42 to 45 none of the qualities talk about Bhakti 18.42 to 45 when Krishna describes the qualities of a Brahmana takes sense control, mind control, tolerance peacefulness, knowledge, realisation faith in scripture he gives a list but Bhakti is not mentioned over there similarly if you look at the qualities of Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra there is no mention of Bhakti because Varanashram in and of itself is a material social arrangement that can be used for a transcendental purpose and that’s why this verse which Prabhupada quotes from the Vishnu Purana is so important and a similar verse comes in the Bhagavatam also these two verses after the Paradharma verse this verse is telling which Prabhupada has quoted Varanashram Acharvata Purushena Parahappaman Bhaktirat Vishnuraradhite Panthananya Tattoshya Karanam the whole purpose of Varanashram is to satisfy Lord Vishnu so again now these three left I am not referring to the three as goodness, passion, ignorance, this is Paradharma this is Shudra Dharma and this is Varanashram Dharma so now what this verse is telling us is Varanashram Dharma should be practised for the satisfaction of Lord Vishnu then it will enable us to rise up spiritually now a Brahmana can be a mundane intellectual also I mean an intellectual can have Brahminical attributes, skills but that person if the intellectual skills are not used for practising devotional service then being intellectual may give the person some material satisfaction but it will not lead to any spiritual purification it will not lead to any spiritual advancement so that means this Varanashram Dharma should be practised in such a way that when we satisfy Lord Vishnu I am a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, whatever I am, I do it so that I satisfy Lord Vishnu and then it will also help me in my Sadhana Bhakti. So now from our practical point of view how does all this work out in today’s scenario today we don’t have society divided into the four Varanas of course there is the Jati system in India today, it is not there in other parts of the world and even if we have the Jati system, it is largely based on birth so it doesn’t, as Srila Prabhupada talks about in the Parpot some people feel this is discrimination and so they want to end the system and one way the Indian government tries to end the system is by having reservations for the lower caste so that they can, the idea was they were exploited for so many centuries so now they should be facilitated, so what is being done is they are trying to end discrimination by further discrimination they feel they were discriminated against, now let us discriminate for them, but this simply continues the parampara of discrimination it doesn’t lead to any elevation, purification, transformation actually speaking the essence of Varanashram as I said at the start of the class is that it helps us to find ourselves materially as we find ourselves spiritually so to find ourselves materially means we act according to our material nature so that we are reasonably satisfied when we are living in material life and as we find ourselves spiritually that means as we practise sadhana bhakti and realise our spiritual nature so Varanashram dharma is material, sadhana bhakti is transcendental when a sadhana bhakta practises Varanashram dharma then Varanashram dharma can also be spiritualised but in and of itself it does not have to be spiritual it can be spiritualised so when we talk about dharma we need to look at the cultural aspect at any religious activity there is a cultural aspect and there is a transcendental aspect spiritual aspect so let’s understand the difference between the cultural aspect and the transcendental aspect of various dharmic activities for example many say iskcon temples or the govindas or other places we may have something called pizza prasad now many traditional people when they come to the temple when they hear the word pizza prasad they get intellectually short circuited they just can’t figure out prasad, how can you call pizza as prasad their idea of prasad is there is some religious ritual in the temple or in the home altar and after that some sugar is distributed some jaggery is distributed or maybe some peda is distributed so their idea of prasad is some small morsels of food that are distributed after some religious ritual so their understanding of prasad is a cultural understanding that in the culture that they have lived in they have seen ok prasad means this now that cultural understanding is correct but it is not a complete understanding the spiritual understanding of prasad is that whatever is offered to Krishna with love and devotion when he accepts it and gives us his remnants what is left for us is prasad so from the spiritual perspective any food as long as it is in harmony with the principles of devotion if it is offered to Krishna it becomes prasad so prasad from the spiritual point of view can be any food it can be pizza it can be pakoda it can be puri it can be chow mein whatever so how does it become prasad because prasad is not limited to some cultural specific food items so there is a cultural understanding of prasad that is certain food items which are traditionally offered in the temples and the spiritual understanding the spiritual principle is whatever is offered to Krishna becomes prasad so this cultural and spiritual can sometime go in harmony and can sometimes be in conflict what does it mean for example say when we say in India when we have prasad so normally speaking if we have some say western item or a Italian item or a Chinese item so at that time there is so for example as I said there is pizza prasad so now when the pizza prasad is offered or as compared to some traditional item is there there is some puri prasad is there so both are in their own way delicious but the cultural aspect can sometimes help us to remember Krishna and sometimes obstruct us from remembering Krishna how is that it depends on what kind of past conditionings we have had so if I have been eating pizza when I in my pre devotional days where I go to parties and I sit with all kinds of materialistic people and then I have been eating pizza at that time so when I start eating pizza what happens is I don’t remember even if it is pizza prasad I don’t remember prasad I remember pizza and pizza reminds me of so many other things that are devotionally unfavourable so what has happened to some extent within iskcon is India has this traditional culture iskcon is the spiritual expression of that traditional culture and then Shrila Prabhupada established iskcon to take the spiritual culture all over the world so the purpose was the traditional spiritual culture so iskcon could be like a funnel a channel which takes the spiritual culture of India all over the world that has definitely happened but along with that what has also happened is the culture of the world has come through iskcon to India the materialistic culture to some extent it is not necessarily materialistic if it is used for Krishna’s service but it is for each of us to take our own moral inventory for example if we can have rock kirtans so we can have rock music with Hare Krishna mantra singing now it is at one level spiritual because the Hare Krishna mantra is there but what is spiritual also depends on what my consciousness is so when there is rock mantra am I remembering the mantra or am I remembering the rock that is something which I have to take inventory myself so for example people who are in the west for them rock is very common and when rock mantra is there for them the new thing is the mantra so they may be remembering the mantra the same rock mantra may help them make spiritual advancement on the other hand that same rock mantra when I am hearing it I am not hearing the mantra I am hearing the rock and I am not making necessarily spiritual advancement by that so the point which I am making over here is there is the cultural aspect and there is the spiritual aspect so sometimes the cultural and the spiritual aspects can go together in harmony and sometimes they can be in disharmony that will depend on individual to individual that individual’s consciousness will determine that so now how does this apply to varanashram dharma so the principle of varanashram dharma primarily is not to divide society into four varanas that is not the essence the essence is that there should be harmonious living materially by which people can make advancement spiritually so with this background now suppose there is somebody who is from a say a low caste background dalit or somebody like that and that person has been exploited a lot in the name of the caste system and it is true that there has been a lot of exploitation although the extent is often far more exaggerated than what it was really but there has been exploitation so if somebody comes from such a background and then that person hears actually society should be divided into brahmin, kshatriya, vaisya that means you want to continue all the exploitation again no not at all that is not the purpose the purpose is to have a social organisation by which people can practise their material life peacefully harmoniously and also make spiritual advancement spiritually so how that will work out in today’s society will vary according to time, place, circumstance just as at the time of the Goswamis they would not have conceived of pizza prasad because that is a cultural expression, the cultural expression will be time specific the spiritual principle is universal the spiritual principle is the food that we eat should be offered to Krishna but the cultural expression of that spiritual principle will be contextual will be time specific so pizza prasad will be one way which in current times is acceptable similarly varanashram dharma is a cultural expression the cultural expression of how society was traditionally divided into four varanas now can that division be replicated in today’s society the principle here is Srila Prabhupada would say this is not an artificial division it is a natural division natural division means actually the precise word for varana is not caste the word caste comes from it’s an English word it comes from the European culture and there caste was often used in a racial sense so it was very race specific whereas varana is more of based on inherent nature so actually the four varanas are essentially four human types there are four different types of human beings and these four types are there all over the world and these four human types are the intellectuals, the administrators the business persons and the general workers in any society that we go anywhere in the world these four divisions of people will be there so then there are two situations varanashram is an artificial discriminative division of society that is not correct there is a varanashram is a natural intrinsic division of society then we may say what is the need to create varanashram if varanashram is natural then it is already naturally there some people are brahmins, intellectuals some people are administrators so it’s a natural division of society then why do we need to do anything at all it’s already there yes, the division of society the four human types are natural but in today’s society people don’t naturally discover their nature in today’s society people don’t naturally discover their nature that means in today’s society often there is so much pressure that people just don’t know what is their duty, what are they supposed to do everybody is pressurised into a rut once there was a case before a court came the case was parental conflict over the child and what is the conflict, the father said I want my son to become an engineer and the mother was saying I want my son to become a doctor so the judge said, we live in a democratic country instead of you parents having a conflict ask the child, what does the child want to do become an engineer or a doctor the parents said that’s not possible why is that the child is not yet born so in today’s society there is so much stereotyped grinding of people into certain pre-existing or pre-favoured models basically so in today’s society even materially speaking most people don’t discover what is their nature and therefore they leave alone being spiritually satisfied, people often are not even materially satisfied and that’s why there is an increasing problem that is there in today’s society, it is called as a mid-life crisis by the time people come to the age of 35, 40, 45 often they feel that I haven’t achieved anything in my life they are not talking about the spiritual advancement but even materially they feel I am not satisfied in my life, I didn’t achieve anything worthwhile because they were pushed into doing things which they didn’t like to do and now they feel resentful about it so it can be quite a traumatic experience this mid-life crisis so the four divisions are natural all human beings will fall within these four human types but it is not that people will automatically discover this, in today’s society somebody may be an intellectual but that person may be forced by social and cultural pressure to work maybe as a business person that person will not be satisfied materially also so therefore when Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON now we will see a very subtle and very significant progression in Srila Prabhupada’s thought if you look at Srila Prabhupada’s letters conversations, lectures from 1966 to 1970 they are all talking about how this Varanasi, this caste system Varanasi dharma has become caste system and it has failed and there is no need to revive this caste system we should just practise devotional service and become transcendental and go back home, back to God that is the emphasis in his lectures and conversations and letters however from 1970 onwards especially from 73-74 till 77 before he departed we see a significant evolution in his thoughts, Srila Prabhupada says that Varanasi dharma must be established, in fact in his last year he said Varanasi dharma is 50% of my work 50% of my mission is still remaining so what is happening over here what is Srila Prabhupada doing, actually as I said there is the cultural aspect and there is the transcendental aspect remember the three levels, three meanings of dharma there is the paradharma then there is sadhana bhakti and there is Varanasi dharma so first Srila Prabhupada emphasised the paradharma and the sadhana bhakti yes, we are all souls we should just transcend but then as this form started spreading then it became clear that devotees were not able to transcend so quickly Srila Prabhupada got devotees married and he found that many of the marriages were not working there are many reasons for that but as the marriages started collapsing one of the main reasons was there was incompatibility, cultural incompatibility individual incompatibility whatever and similarly Srila Prabhupada established two broad divisions of the ashrams there was the householder and there was the renounced Srila Prabhupada introduced sannyas ashram also and there were lot of difficulties for the sannyasis also many of the sannyasis couldn’t maintain their standards and Srila Prabhupada said that if you are transcendental then why are you falling like this that means you are not transcendental so Varanashram so the idea is sadhana bhakti is meant to help us transcend but transcending doesn’t happen overnight it’s a lifetime journey sometimes a multi-lifetime journey and for that purpose we need a harmonious material arrangement and that material arrangement is Varanashram so in today’s society how will Varanashram dharma be determined Srila Prabhupada in his times did not go about labelling people labelling devotees, you are a Vaishya, you are a Shudra you are a Brahmana Srila Prabhupada did not do like that Srila Prabhupada said all of us are Vaishnavas and whatever service is required for a particular person let that person do that service so Srila Prabhupada gave different services to different devotees but in general he also looked at individual dispositions and he engaged devotees according to what would inspire them the most when Srila Prabhupada was in London at that time the movement had spread quite significantly in Europe and London was like the European headquarters of the Krishna Consciousness movement at that time the three couples they had come first to London and then from there they had met George Harrison and the Krishna Consciousness movement had spread rapidly across Europe so when Srila Prabhupada had come there all his leaders from Germany, from Portugal, from France, they all came to meet him and Srila Prabhupada was asking each of them so so how are things in London how are things in France how are things in Italy, they were all giving reports so there was one young devotee over there his name was Ishan Prabhu Ishan Prabhu saw that everybody was coming and reporting their services to Srila Prabhupada and he said I don’t have anything to do for Srila Prabhupada so he approached after the meeting got over approached Srila Prabhupada personally and he said Prabhupada can you give me something that I can do for Krishna Prabhupada looked at him in the eyes and said what do you want to do for Krishna he said Prabhupada whatever you tell me I will do Prabhupada looked at him squarely in the eyes and said what do you want to do for Krishna he said I never thought that I am supposed to think what I want to do for Krishna Srila Prabhupada whatever you tell me I will do what do you want Prabhupada became very grave and he said what do you want to do for Krishna Srila Prabhupada I will have to think about it and then he thought for a few days and before Srila Prabhupada left he came back and he said that Prabhupada I have seen that in our kirtans we have these mrudangas which are so wonderful they take the kirtan to a higher level but often these mrudangas break so he was some sort of artist so he said I was thinking that we get mrudangas from Mayapur clay mrudangas and often they break I was thinking of making mrudangas with other materials which are locally available over here and he said those mrudangas will not break so easily Prabhupada smiled broadly and said yes, very good your god brothers are very passionate make the mrudangas in such a way that even if they throw them down it will not break and then he started making those mrudangas and that became his life long service similarly at another time so here what is the point over here Srila Prabhupada encouraged devotees to take individual initiative to discover how they can best serve Krishna so this doesn’t mean one becomes independent or whimsical or arbitrary defying one’s authorities but it simply means that Srila Prabhupada encouraged devotees what do you feel inspired to do for Krishna and you do that in Krishna’s service so the idea this is basically the idea of Varanashram the idea is that all of us have certain material talents and when we use those talents in Krishna’s service we will be able to do the service well and we will also be satisfied in doing such service and we will be productive in that service at another time from the 1970s book distribution picked up with tremendous momentum all over ISKCON and as book distribution started spreading there were some devotees who were excellent book distributors and these devotees they formed a team and they came to Srila Prabhupada and said Srila Prabhupada as we have distributed so many books we have found that there are certain statements that we make certain expressions that we have certain gestures that we do when we do these statements these expressions, these gestures then people take books so can we go around temple to temple to temple and train the devotees to learn these expressions gestures and statements and then your books can be distributed rapidly Srila Prabhupada heard this he became very grave very grave and Srila Prabhupada said he says Krishna consciousness is individual voluntary and spontaneous when the soul feels inspired to serve Krishna then devotional service is performed so he says don’t teach the techniques inspire the people to serve Krishna inspire the devotees to serve Krishna so what is this? Devotional service is individual, voluntary and spontaneous individual everyone of us is irreducibly individual you and I are different and that’s how Krishna has made us to be so we are all individual and when we want to serve Krishna, it’s voluntary each one of us has to individually choose to serve Krishna and when it is served we serve Krishna, it has to be spontaneous it cannot be forced so it’s individual, voluntary and spontaneous and the essence of devotional service is when the soul feels inspired to serve Krishna then devotional service is performed so what we can get from others is the inspiration certain techniques we may learn but the techniques are not the essence the techniques may not sell the books always anyway they sell the books that is not what will transform the heart that is not what will please Krishna Krishna is pleased when we have the desire to serve Him and our desire to serve Him inspire the similar desire to serve Him in the heart of someone else that is the essence of Krishna consciousness so actually speaking the whole principle of Arunacharam as it will be applied in today’s society will be based on devotees with the guidance of their seniors understanding their own talents understanding their own inspirations and then serving Krishna according to those talents and inspirations so we will have many improvisations improvisations means current arrangements which will not be the traditional models but whatever way things work out in today’s society by which people can serve Krishna so for example so the whole principle of Arunacharam is that people live harmonious materially while making advancement spiritual that is the basic principle of the social arrangement so that may work out differently in different situations for example some devotees may decide to retreat to a farm community and in the farm community they set a model of eco-friendly living and they practise simple living and high thinking now that is a very powerful model of alternative traditional culture in today’s materialistic culture it is valuable however that is not what everybody is likely to do Srila Prabhupada wanted the eco-friendly rural communities and Srila Prabhupada also wanted vibrant urban communities he wanted temples to be in the heart of the city in a conversation one western scholar asked Srila Prabhupada Swamiji you are building temples all over the world so he says what do you think is the best location for a temple so Srila Prabhupada said a temple is like a hospital so where is a hospital best located it is the place where there are most sick people it can serve those people the most and he said the material contamination today is most in the cities and that is why we want temples in the cities in the heart of the cities where people can get a spiritual retreat, a place for spiritual solace amidst the stress and the tension of material life so a significant part of our outreach will definitely be in the cities now in the cities there will be some limited number of brahmacharis who will be living inside the temples but along with that there will be mostly our movement will be grahasthas who will be having their own jobs and their own careers and their own families and along with that bhakti will be an important part of their life so Krishna as I mentioned in 12.8 he talks about para bhakti then 12.9 he talks about sadhana bhakti and 12.10 he talks about karma vishwa bhakti so 12.9 he talks about sadhana bhakti he is telling the previous verses fix your mind on Krishna that was 12.8, now 12.9 he says if you cannot fix the mind on Krishna if you cannot fix the mind on Krishna then by the practise of abhyas yoga that is by sadhana bhakti increase your desire for attaining and if you can’t do that now abhyas yoga is sadhana bhakti so now we do sadhana bhakti in the morning programme that we have everyday but we can’t do sadhana bhakti 24 hours a day so then there is one more level that is talked about in the next verse 12.10 Krishna says so he says if you cannot do abhyas then work for me make me the goal of your work if you work in this way for my sake you will attain siddhi, you will attain perfection so this level of working for Krishna has two implicit levels in it so one is say we have the brahmacharis who work for Krishna directly that means whatever services they are doing that is for Krishna they don’t take any salary, they don’t take any financial emoluments they are working directly for Krishna another level is the grahasthas who are working for Krishna in a different way they are having their job, they are having their families but it’s all ultimately meant for Krishna a part of their earnings they give for Krishna for charity along with that their homes are centred on Krishna and they are taking care of the family members as devotees of Krishna or as if they are not yet devotees but as potential devotees of Krishna so this is both working for Krishna so this working for Krishna is the way we practise varna ashram dharma in society so we have our sadhana bhakti that we do that is the morning programme and along with that we have varieties of services that will depend on our ashram that will depend on our inclination that is our varna but we have varieties of services that we do so now for the for those who are working grahasthas now a major source of contamination and distraction is the only association that they have when they are working in their professions so if the grahasthas could work together I say there are number of grahastha devotees who work together then what happens is they are working for earning their livings but they are working in an environment that is conducive for their spiritual advance that is not unfavourable to their spiritual advance so this would be an improvised sort of varna ashram it’s not exactly varna ashram but the idea is they live in a materially harmonious environment so some devotees may find that say there are devotees who have an inclination of teaching and a number of devotees may become professors or lecturers in a college and then they all have their association together so they are working in a material job but they are having devotee association there are number of doctors who are together they may start their own hospital and then they will have a spiritual environment in which they can practise their material profession and in that way there can be various professions which can be spiritualised we know that Bhakta Vinod Thakur said that along for the day when the high court judges will be wearing tilak that is the day when we will see that Krishna Consciousness is spread far and wide so now this is a very significant prophecy for several reasons first point is that it’s very fundamental that means even if Krishna Consciousness spreads far and wide still we will need to have judges this is the material world there will always be people who will commit crime and there will need to be system of government second point is that he wanted that means now to become a judge is a very influential position in society and to get to that position one has to work hard one has to be responsible one has to become patent so he expected that there should be materially talented people who become devotees and then they continue working according to their material talents and then they rise to the level of judges or we reach out to people who are materially influential like judges and make them into devotees the idea is Krishna Consciousness will not spread very far if we just withdraw from the rest of society in the name of practising spiritual life we withdraw from the rest of society then Krishna Consciousness will not influence society much but what Bhaktivinoda Thakur is talking about here is society itself becoming reshaped so the Prabhupada said he has written Srimad Bhagavatam it is a cultural presentation for the re-spiritualization of society so if the society is to be re-spiritualised how will that happen actually people who are materially talented they will excel materially in whatever fields they are talented and as devotees what we should do is we should not discourage them say hey this is all Maya why do you want to work so hard, why do you want to earn so much money why do you want to do all these things ultimately life is temporary you have to go beyond you have to just transcend to go back to the spiritual yes that is the ultimate goal but we also have to live in this world and in general people who are materialistic are inspired and influenced by those who are materially successful so if there are people who are materially talented and if they have the talent to become successful in material life as long as they are not compromising on their spiritual principles there is no harm there is only benefit in they becoming a successful material working for that see everybody has a certain level of passion and that passion cannot be suppressed if you try to suppress that passion it will simply come up in ugly ways for example if somebody has a lot of talent to do great things but that person is all material it’s all temporary why work so hard then somebody else works hard and becomes successful what happens is these people that same ambition that same pride now comes up in ugly forms as envy and then they will go around gossiping you know that person is like that now why do people spend so much time and energy in gossiping and backbiting that’s because their energy is not channelised in constructive directions so giving constructive channels for people for their energy whose responsibility is that is that the spiritual master’s responsibility well in today’s society the way our movement has spread the spiritual master just doesn’t have the capacity to examine every single disciple and find out the nature and engage the disciple accordingly then we have our local temple, we have our counsellors our spiritual mentors, our guides and they will surely be of help to us but ultimately our spiritual advancement is our responsibility ultimately we will make spiritual advancement by Krishna’s mercy by Vaishnava’s mercy but making the spiritual advancement is our responsibility like the rope is given down to the person who has fallen in the well but holding on to the rope so that the person comes out that is that person’s responsibility similarly holding on to the rope means engaging ourselves constructively that is our responsibility that is something which every one of us with the guidance of our seniors has to discover so this will be the improvised way in which Varanashram can work out in today’s society we can’t expect that that somebody will suddenly emerge self effulgent acharya and that possibility this is how we set up Varanashram it may happen if that’s what Krishna wants but each of us has to take initiative to find out how we can best serve Krishna and we don’t become as I said independent or whimsical or disrespectful while doing our services to Krishna, no we have to be respectful, we take the guidance and the blessings of our senior devotees but ultimately it’s our spiritual life and our life is our offering to Krishna so Arjuna was a warrior and if we read the Mahabharata he was certainly a very religious and a devout person but along with that he worked hard as a warrior as a warrior how he practised all of us know that story that one night the lantern went off and all of them were taking food and the lantern went off and Arjuna flipped eating and he let’s go you know if I can eat at night without the light being present then I can shoot at night also you know why should I if I am supposed to become an archer I should become the best archer for Krishna’s sake then why should I waste the night time and then he started practising even at night from there onwards so we see that Arjuna did not dismiss his archery just as a material skill now it was not that Arjuna knew in the future there is going to be dharma yuddha where I will use my archery for Krishna’s sake he had no idea like that in advance but he knew my archery is my dharma and I have to do it well so similarly as devotees whatever situations we are in whatever roles we are playing whatever duties we are doing if we do them well, we do them well for Krishna’s sake then we prepare ourselves for whatever future services Krishna will send our way so in that way as devotees we certainly take pride in the fact that not pride in arrogant sense but pride in a grateful sense we take pride in the fact that we have got the process of bhakti yoga we have got the Hare Krishna Mahamantra by Prabhupada’s mercy by which we can make spiritual advancement rapidly and return back to Krishna but at the same time while we are returning back to Krishna we should also be using our god given abilities in ways that will bring glory to Krishna that will do justice to the talents that Krishna has given us that will enable us to do good to the world and share Krishna’s love with the world so I will conclude with one thought it is said what we are is God’s gift to us what we become is our gift to God so what we are is God’s gift to us so right now we are at a certain level of sadhana bhakti we have got the process of devotional service we have got the Hare Krishna Mahamantra we have got the association of devotees that is Krishna’s gift to us of course it is also a result of our own past karma at least at a material level whatever we are materially but it is also Krishna’s arrangement but what we become is our gift to Krishna it is not what we give yes we may give certain things to Krishna we may do the services, we may give the charity all that is good but what Krishna wants is not just what we give but what we become what we become is what kind of people we become there is a lot of emphasis in the Vedic culture on giving charity to dharma and that is important but actually why is there so much importance in giving money to Krishna because the idea is ultimately we are meant to give our heart to Krishna but our heart is caught in so many worldly things so then the scriptures tell us if you can’t give your heart to Krishna then give what is in your heart to Krishna so for most people what is in their heart is money so when they give money to Krishna what happens is they are actually giving a part of their heart to Krishna they are giving Krishna a place in their heart and Krishna is so expert that once we give him a place in our heart he will take over our whole heart sooner or later that is Krishna’s sweet love for us but the idea is ultimately what we are to give Krishna is not just the things that we are giving it is what we become so what we are is Krishna’s gift to us and by the practise of Varanashram Dharma where we live materially harmoniously and by the practise of Sadhana Bhakti where we make spiritual advancement by this what we become that is our gift to Krishna so I will summarise what I discussed then you can have your question answers so I started first by talking about how Srila Prabhupada is talking about Varanashram in this part and I talked about three meanings of the word Dharma the Transcendental Dharma is Ahaitukya Pratyahata Bhakti the Material Dharma is whatever is according to our nature and the Transitional Dharma is Sadhana Bhakti which takes us from the material level to the spiritual level and then I discussed about how the cultural and the spiritual can be together or can be in conflict I talked about the example of Prasad, Pisa Prasad Pisa is the cultural aspect, Prasad is the spiritual principle then talked about rock music how to each of us take inventory whether the cultural aspect is helping us to remember Krishna or causing us to forget Krishna now in Varanashram Dharma the cultural aspect is the division of society into the four Varanas so if that is favourable to Bhakti, we will accept it if that is not favourable, the underlying principle is that everybody serves Krishna according to their talents and their inspirations so I gave the example of Ishana Prabhu and of the devotees who wanted to standardise book distribution, homogenise book distribution and Prabhupada said Krishna conscious Bhakti Yoga is individual, voluntary and spontaneous and then lastly we discussed about how what we are is Krishna’s gift to us and what we become through our Varanashram Dharma duties and through our Sadhana Bhakti that is our gift to Krishna thank you very much are there any questions, any comments Hare Krishna, thank you very much nice class I have few comments one about Dharma Dharma Prabhupada translated as prescribed duty Dharma means prescribed duty yes this Varanashram Dharma is like ABCD I mean I can give a super speculation so Varanashram Dharma is like Bhagavad Gita Sadhana Bhakti is like Thiruvanbhagavatam and unenviable devotional service like Chaitanya Chaitanya so this Varanashram is ABCD no matter whether you study in primary school high school, middle school, high school, college, wherever the ABCD will follow therefore it is called Varana, the ABCD is called Varanamala 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Varanamala Varanamala has to be there upto your last study till you die, even you speak, you speak Varanamala so this Varanashram has two words Varana and Ashram Varana is systematic arrangement of society and Ashram which brings the happiness or peace which teaches how to be happy or peaceful in society so I remember one incident in 1979 we had room number 108 where Anantirtha Prabhu is sitting now that was our conference hall Prabhupada just passed away a year or two and we wanted to do as much as what Prabhupada wanted so Prabhupada towards the end he had two things one is to establish Varanashram Dharma and second was BI, Bhaktivedanta Institute one point he said, I will give whole guest house to BI, whole Istanbul to BI for preaching so we started discussing about Varanashram Dharma, so the same kind of question came, that up to 1973 Prabhupada didn’t care for Varanashram, now later on he talked about Varanashram system so I think Mahabodhi Prabhu was there or Amoghila, I don’t remember, one of them they asked this question to Prabhupada Tamil Krishna Manohar that why 365 degree, opposite till 73 he said, I don’t care you are talking about transcendental thing and blablabla and later on for Varanashram Tamil Krishna Maharaj said that when Prabhupada was talking about the transcendental situation the devotees literally took the meaning of whatever he was talking, and they started calling their mother, father, they are demon this time she is a rascal and it was creating a hobby the rascals were dumping their wife, ready to take sanyas and then they were falling down so many things were going on so Prabhupada said there is something going wrong then he jumped on Varanashram training peeped, trained up Brahmachari, and he gave a lecture also here in Bombay on this Varanashram system here in Bombay on 7th Candle Bhagavatam he gave a lecture about Varanashram system on Brahmachari, Gurukule they start from there so he wanted this training very much training so Sadhana, Bhakti and Varanashram, everybody even in our body, I will say there are three parts body subtle body and the consciousness or soul I can say so the gross body is like Varanashram, we have Krama, Kshatriya Vaishya, and Shudra in body and then subtle body is there Prabhuji, I don’t feel like coming to Mangala Aarti today that thinking, feeling, willing comes from the mind so Sadhana, Bhakti again which helps body to come for Mangala Aarti or class or Gurukul or whatever and then soul’s natural you know, tendency to serve Krishna and the service means Prabhupada said Vahetuki or Pratyahara so in that sense we can see here, Varanashram is there so we cannot cross over or leave Varanashram when we come on Transcendental Platform then we can see that Varanashram is like Mahaprabhu while talking to Raya Ramananda that’s all right Agahkar, go so in this whole situation I think devotee of Krishna Consciousness who are in beginning stage they must value everything following the law of land, just like you made a good point I really like it that till today I cannot pronounce pizza or whatever although I like it so so, yes Indian culture, we thought Prasadam means Lachidana or rice, dal, sabji that is jalebi or sweet that is Prasadam Prasadam, that’s the Indian culture so we must follow the law of our land I remember once when I was in Vrindavan in 2003 some devotee, they were going for book distribution, this time summer season so Vaishnava Prabhu, they all like to go Himalaya side, because it’s cold that side so they are going they passed by Suptal, where Swami had spoke Bhagavatam there are Bhandara going on the devotee also they sat down to take Prasadam they are eating Prasadam there are nice poori, halwa, sabji all these things are going on then later on they are serving Coca-Cola so all devotees are looking our Indian devotee, Iskand devotee they are looking and they thought something wrong here why are they serving Coca-Cola so they asked the server why are they serving Coca-Cola he said, what do I know he said, I come from London he is doing Bhagavatam on his father’s name and he asked, are you serving Coca-Cola so they are serving Coca-Cola so the devotee went to Mr. Desai because he is sinful, he is serving Coca-Cola and they asked him, why are you serving Coca-Cola it’s such a nice Prasadam why are you serving Coca-Cola Desai said in Hindi My father was a very good devotee when he was dying when he was dying we asked him to call him Bapu and Bapu said Coca-Cola it was Bapu’s last wish anyway that was but even devotees they felt something wrong and he made a very good point on this music what is rock music those devotees in the west rock music doesn’t make much difference but chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra makes difference our Indian devotees today they are trying to imitate that they play the Jimbo Wala if you hear you will never hear Hare Krishna Mahamantra only your dim dim dim so I think he made a good point that we must follow the law of land and that is Dharma for us Thank you Thank you very much Hare Krishna Hare Krishna as you said that when we preach we have to encourage encourage to serve Krishna so as we focus because my field is in book distribution so when I preach I focus in this thing that what Prabhupada want, Prabhupada said if you want to please me distribute books because this is my service but Prabhupada said somewhere if you want to please me then you serve Krishna and you said you chant sitting 16 rounds so as Prabhupada said you know Vanasana Dharma is last name so how Prabhupada gave this like this various guidelines to various devotees so is it Prabhupada saw that particular devotee is fond of book distribution that is why he said okay you want to please me book distribution or these are like you chant 16 rounds sitting in one state sit then also he said you know you love Krishna so this is what Prabhupada he gave this instruction as for particular seeing devotees or for general like so the question is should Prabhupada encourage different things at different time sometimes he said you please me distribute books other times he said sit at one place and chant so what exactly does it mean are these specific instructions for some devotees or are they for everyone applicable see the specific emphasis is for individuals although the principle applies for everyone everybody should chant properly everybody should distribute books as much as possible but there will definitely be the time specific aspect in the Acharya’s instructions why in Acharya’s instructions that is there in Krishna’s instructions also now when Krishna tells Arjuna in 4.1 I gave this knowledge to the sun god so now when Krishna gave the knowledge to the sun god he would not have spoken this verse at that time that I gave this knowledge to the sun god isn’t it so that is the time specific aspect so like that even in Krishna’s words there will be the central aspect so some people say that we have to always recognise that Acharya’s words is a central aspect and there is a contextual aspect so the central aspect of Krishna consciousness is becoming Krishna conscious that what will please me most is if you love Krishna now one very powerful way of developing our love for Krishna is by sharing Krishna’s with others that is distributing books but there can be other ways also and the most important thing that we focus on is how we feel inspired and how our authorities guide and bless us so that we can serve Krishna so we can be very enthused and inspired and motivated for what is our definition of success in Krishna consciousness but we shouldn’t impose our definition on others somebody not doing purushottam that doesn’t mean that that person is not pleasing Srila Prabhupada that person may be pleasing in a different way so that is the whole idea of Varanashram is different people have different definitions of success for a Kshatriya the definition of success is radically different from what is for a Brahmana although both may be devotees and both may be practising spiritual life but still the definitions of success are different so like that within Srila Prabhupada and encourage diversity in the definition of success within the broad umbrella of Krishna consciousness any other questions? Proji you mentioned towards the end of this class that how a person should be encouraged will you give example that those people we have a set of people who will join full time and serve and there will be a huge group of people who will be living family life and working in society and then there will be devotional also so and then you explained that how the danger is there of being in this contaminating environment while working so I was just thinking that even presently when more or less we are not emphasising so much this aspect of encouraging people in whatever duties they are doing outside to do that also nicely and then gradually we will be able to offer it to Krishna even in this scenario we see that people quite easily they are getting swayed once they land into some responsible jobs some good paying jobs or some positions so it becomes very difficult for them to come regularly to temple and chant regularly and even if they are chanting at their home they are chanting regularly so then I was just thinking that in case we encourage them then how to strike the balance yet encouraging them to go forward in their ambitions at the same time keeping with them devotional and devotees actually serving the mission because that is how our society is going to be with less room charge and more care yes so if you encourage people to be responsible materially then often they spend so much time and energy in that that they can’t even practise spiritual life basically so how do we encourage them for a balance actually Krishna describes in the 18th chapter that one of the characteristics of the mode of ignorance is to make one thing everything that when you take one thing and make that you make it into everything that is a characteristic of Tamoguna so there are the influence of Rajoguna and Tamoguna so Rajoguna means people will work hard extremely to achieve material things but when Tamoguna influences them then they make their material life not just their material life but their specific material ambitions into everything and this is a problem not just for devotees it is a problem for non devotees also even non devotees just to become successful in their life in their careers they neglect not only their health they neglect their families, their spouses their children and many families fall apart because of that so that is not just happening because of the contamination specifically it is not just because they are doing their worldly duties it is because the whole atmosphere is so Tamasic today so people who have these problems of being unbalanced they will have this problem not just in balancing material and spiritual life they will have the problem balancing the various aspects of material life also so the whole aspect of balance will come through education by which people come to the mode of goodness that’s why when we are offering our spiritual education we emphasise that although our goal is transcendence people have to function in the mode of goodness so even when they are working in their material lives they are not just working in passion they are working in ignorance in many ways ignorance in terms of making one thing into everything then they will not be happy even in material life they achieve the top goals they will be lonely, they will be lost that’s what happens when people just forget everything else and just focus on one aspect of their life and thinking that that will be everything they become successful in their careers but they are they are divorced there are custody battles for their children between the spouses and their life is overall miserable so this is the trend of this age the challenge is balance the balance will come through education and individual choice, individual maturity so we cannot demand it from people but if we offer the proper education of how that means our goal is transcendence but overall we need to live in goodness only then we will be happy materially also see even a Kshatriya has to have some level of goodness even a Shudra if the Shudra is following Varanashram Dharma the fact that the Shudra is following Varanashram Dharma indicates that there is some level of goodness even in Shudra because if there were no goodness goodness indicates that one is adhering to scripture so if there is no goodness then the Shudra would not even follow Shastra that would be completely a completely a materialistic God or atheistic Shudra Shudra, Vaishya, these are also parts of Varanashram culture when are they parts? when they have some level of goodness that’s why say discouraging people from being materially enterprising is not the solution because that will only choke their passion of course the other problem is if we encourage them too much their passion will choke them so they either they choke their passion or their passion chokes them so what is the balance? the balance will come through goodness that’s why at a basic level we have to very strongly emphasise the practise of sadhana and it’s not really that when people have to achieve success materially also it’s not that it has to consume their entire life there are people for generations together, for centuries together they are always having successful people, isn’t it? now is it that all the successful people in the past ages they didn’t have their family life, they did not have their spiritual life, they had it so balance is possible we just need examples for that so first there has to be some basic training there are some devotees who are examples of that and from their example others will also follow that example so it’s possible that there is the sadhana there is the family and there is the job so all these three have to be balanced and how does one do that that will vary according to person to person but everyone has to learn his own balance so that will be we again cannot standardise or homogenise that every person will practise spiritual life what we do in bhakti yoga is we provide a pathway for people to return back to Krishna at what speed they will go on that pathway that will depend on them some people will go fast some people will go slowly but we encourage everybody to keep going forward on that path thank you very much thank you small question you mentioned that how in Vedic times class would be made not on the basis of birth but according to their inclinations propensities how would they determine shudra or a vaisya child who is just born how would they determine what he is like what is his nature how do you determine that yes, so in Vedic times the division of varanashram was not by birth but by qualities and inclination and how was that determined traditionally the varanas would be determined by birth first why? because if say a brahmana and a brahmani unite then the soul that is born from their womb will by the arrangement of nature be of a brahmanical inclination and similarly for the other varanas also so that was the normal way it was not the only mandatory thing as Chandogya Upanishad talks about Satyakama Bajjapalli who was born from a society woman but he was considered to be a brahmana because he was truthful so there are exceptions but the norm was that people born in a particular family would normally have the inclinations of their parents there were systems you know if somebody exhibited extraordinary talents then there would be the idlers in the village who would observe in our tradition, in the Gaudiya Sampradaya Rupa Goswami in the Bhakti Samasindhu doesn’t talk about varanashram as a limb of bhakti but the first acharya to talk about varanashram and integrating it with sadhana bhakti is Bhakti Vinodhan and he talks about Vaigyanik Varanashram scientific varanashram and he says that actually in every village there should be a committee of wise elders and they should observe all the children in society because he says in today’s society there has been so much intermixing between the various castes that the traditional lineages are no longer guaranteed to bring children of those particular varanas alone so therefore there has to be observation by a panel of village elders of the children and then by observing carefully, discussing with the parents, evaluating the children then their varana can be assigned and he gives a quite elaborate system for that so essentially that is based on what was done earlier also, traditionally the children of a particular family would belong to the varana of that family but if it was not then the village elders would decide that thank you very much